Avengers Like Us
by Arabella Nadie
Summary: The sequel to Monsters Like Us is finally here! Milena Telivola, hybrid wolf experiment gone wrong, and super assassin Natasha Romanoff have officially come out as a couple. But when the team faces some new enemies in Sokovia, Natasha is forced to face a past she's not yet ready to reveal and lies threaten to split the two. Oh, also Ultron is going to destroy everyone
1. Chapter 1

The wind blew her dark curls in front of her face, but even as they blinded her sight temporarily, she still caught a whiff from the wind traveling just under her nose. The smell was so familiar. Sokovia was the closest she'd been back to Ukraine and the forest's smells and sounds around them were all too similar to what she remembered. It felt weird to be standing on two legs, yet she knew those monsters of her past had to be set aside for now. They had work to do.

"What do you mean you're leaving me in the truck alone?" Clint whined at Natasha as he was loading the vehicle with supplies, ammunition, extra arrows….

"I've got my own ride Barton," she smirked at Clint before turning to her. Oh, Natasha… Why was it that one look from her made Milena's mind get gushy and her feelings soft? To say she had fallen was an understatement as she opened her arms up to embrace the wild redhead and felt the warmth of the back of her neck on her palm as she held them together. Their foreheads met in the middle and they smiled while gazing into each other's eyes before letting them close with full faith that they were both safe with each other.

"Are you ready?" Natasha silently told Milena through her thoughts.

"I'm ready to get this over with so I can have you to myself," she responded playfully.

She heard Natasha laugh in her head. "What happened to the little shy girl I met all those months ago who was afraid of her own shadow?"

"She fell in love…." Milena opened her eyes and smile before placing a quick peck on Natasha's plump lips. They were always so sweet to her and she had to hold back from smiling too wide as she noticed Clint watching them with a mischievous eye.

"Hey ladies, save it for the locker room," he said teasingly while climbing into the truck's front.

"Oh, you know I will," Natasha winked at Milena before nudging her head to the side, suggesting her that it was time.

All she had to do was leap forward and before she touched the ground her hands had grown into paws ten times bigger and her face protruded forward as she felt her nose shifting forwards, her eyes sharpening, and her mouth opening as her teeth grew. The hairs on her back shivered in the cold as she realized there was snow on the ground, but that only added to the formidable face she gave Clint as she showed him her teeth from behind her snarled mouth in an amusing warning that made Natasha laugh. She growled slightly, but playfully, before allowing the archer to pat her head as she came up beside his truck and knelt down slightly.

"That's my girl," Natasha beamed at how fierce she'd become before throwing herself up onto the giant wolf that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the forest.

"Romanoff, Barton, Telivola, are we in the clear?" the three suddenly heard Steve's voice in their ears.

"All set Rogers. We've got a direct route from the southwest position. Rendezvous in twenty seconds?"

"Yeah, if you can keep up," Tony's voice laughed next. "I saw Fluffy digging into the Cocoa Puffs this morning and you know dog's aren't supposed to eat chocolate."

Milena growled and her shoulders tensed before Natasha rubbed behind her ear. "Oh, you're really getting it after this is all over, Stark," she warned him.

"Great," he said smartly just as Milena could hear his thrusters revving up about five miles northeast of them. "Anyone wanna place any bets?"

"Mine's on Telivola,"Clint admitted without hesitation.

"Same," agreed Natasha.

"Hmmm," Thor chirped in from his position. The Asgardian had only recently arrived, but Milena knew from meeting him the first time that he didn't see her as a monster and that comforted her. Thor was, well, strange, but very open-minded for someone as old as he was… They had so many conversations about Asgard and he'd told her that she would love the Rainbow Bridge. He'd said that she could run it to her heart's content. "I would love to see this battle between Stark and our lady of the wolves… I will wager a hundred tarts of pop on Telivola!"

"Ah, c'mon guys," Tony whined. "No one at all believes in me?"

"I'd like to believe that you could remember why we're here," Steve criticized their side conversation. "Hulk?"

"RAAAAHHHHHH!" they could all hear the other guy beat his chest from a distance

"Alright… on my mark…. Three, two…"

Her hind legs extended from their contracted position in an instant as she shot off like a bullet into the depths of the forest at top speed. Even though she was technically a canine, she flashed a very human-like smile as she glanced back and saw Clint struggling to accelerate as fast as she had with his tires bumping up and over tree roots and hills.

"RAAAAAAAAAAHH!" the Hulk's roars suddenly grew louder as the green monster flung himself in front of the two while taking out a squad of soldiers that had been gradually approaching. Her legs began pumping harder against the snow on the ground and she saw Hulk casually ripping up a few men from the ground and they neared the summit of the base.

She easily dodged the puny bullets that flew past her as the familiar sound of Thor's hammer shot through the air above them and the Asgardian could be seen throwing strikes of lightning down bellow onto helpless Hydra soldiers.

Not far up ahead, Cap slid on his motorcycle and dragged a poor fellow beside him as his body practically shred into pieces from the friction on the forest floor. Throwing him off carelessly, he belted down hills and through trees while dodging the enemy's blue beams with ease.

Clint's truck was now nearing them as another truck was launched just above his by the Hulk who was literally tearing through any person he saw. Milena felt a hard nudge by her ribs from Natasha digging her heels into her side; she was telling her to slow down just a bit. As the wolf trotted up a hill to decelerate, the widow made her side aerial dismount off her back and landed on the shoulders of a Hydra soldier who was soon taken down.

Now Tony was flying close to the ground near all of them as they all came upon the same clearing in the forest where a couple of soldiers were defending a small fence. As the wolf flew through the air with her teammates on each of her sides, she was sure that they had just got the money shot before she sunk her teeth into a soldier she landed on.

Man she loved her job.

"Shit!" they all heard Tony exclaim to no surprise.

"Language," Cap retorted as if giving him a strict warning. "JARVIS, what's the view from upstairs?"

While JARVIS and Thor promptly figured out where Loki's scepter was located Natasha headed into action. "Let's have some fun while the boys are busy," she teased pulling out her guns. This was nothing but child's play to her. With Hulk, Clint, Natasha, and her outside surrounding the base they were nothing close to short on offensive manpower. Since S.H.I.E.L.D dissolved they had gotten pretty used to more low-key missions without much backup.

But while the fighting outside continued Milena let herself get caught up in the moment for just a second too long. She normally would've smelled a human headed directly towards their group before he even began to take his first steps. There was never a sound of a twig breaking or a heart beating that got past her ears which constantly twitched and moved in every direction. But this one…. this thing was something she had never encountered before.

As soon as she detected him he was gone again.

"You didn't see that coming?" the accented male voice asked before Milena lost his location again. He had appeared and disappeared in seconds near Clint who was on the ground now. To make matters worse, Milena turned her head in every direction possible trying to track the culprit but failed to notice the bullet headed straight for her teammate. Clint was hit off guard and Natasha ran over to help him.

"We have an enhanced in the field," Rogers noted as if reading Milena's mind. They both knew this thing was not human and weren't entirely sure how to handle it. It, or he, had taken Milena by surprise and distracted her which never occurred before. If there were more of them then they might be in more trouble. Her canine face contracted slightly where her eyebrows would have been as if she were furrowing them in frustration.

"Somebody wanna deal with that bunker?" Natasha called for assistance and was quickly answered by Banner who smashed into the entire thing with his body. "Thank you," her voice brightly chirped before she turned her attention back to Clint's wound. From what she knew it was only a pretty basic flesh wound but he still needed some meds.

Milena gazed over towards the widow knelt over the hawk with her ears pushed slightly back and her head tilted. A puzzled face with beating yellow eyes stared into the green ones once they looked up from the injury they were focused on. "You know what to do," Natasha said encouragingly and gave a quick nod. Milena instantly took off in a light trot headed into the direction she had last seen the Hulk plow through. It didn't take very long at all to find him passive aggressively ripping trees apart with all of his excessive anger energy balled up inside with no more guys to take it out on.

He huffed and looked around anxiously for something to smash as Milena came to a stop and crouched back onto her hind legs to fall into a sitting position. The Hulk took a double take when he noticed the wolf standing a few dozen feet away and crunched his face up in anger only for a short moment before recognizing the friendly presence. His lack of smashing seemed to give Milena permission to slowly walk closer towards him. Despite her being a pretty oversized beast, the Hulk seemed to grow taller and taller until he was skyscraper height as she walked further and further into his shadow. But never taking her eyes off of him, she turned to his slightly uncurled fist and gently began to push her nose towards him.

Once his fist relaxed completely, Milena was able to run her entire back of fur through his hand before quickly walking away. She left the big guy so silent as he stared at his massive green hand before stumbling backwards. He lost balance as the transformation took place before leaving an exhausted and shirtless Bruce crawling to lean up a tree.

Milena's transformation was much easier. She took three steps forward: Two on her paws and the last finally on her human feet as she rose to her normal size. She was over to Bruce in the next second to help him stand.

"Uh, thank you, Milena," Bruce said softly with an awkward smile on his face. But despite both of them never exchanging too many words when this occurred, Milena knew Bruce truly was grateful. The emotions that ran through his mind at the moment were overwhelming for any normal person as she also understood. It bonded them closer just by being near each other for comfort and she felt much better too. Then a slightly ominous voice shook them in both their ears.

"I got the scepter."


	2. Chapter 2

"Hey," Milena leaned down to Bruce's line of view as he sat on the floor of the quinjet lost in whatever music his beats were playing.

"Hey," he tried to mirror her response as he took of his headphones and sort of patted the space next to him gesturing for her to sit down.

"So I guess the petting zoo method really worked for the Big Guy out there today."

"Yes, it did. I just wasn't really expecting the Code Green."

Milena gave him the fixated look as she reassured him. "Bruce, if you hadn't been there we would have had double the casualties. Clint would have been a treasured memory."

Her short glance over towards Natasha as she sat by Clint lasted longer than she had planned when she saw her girlfriend's clear face of distress focused on the wounded man in front of her. She rarely ever saw Natasha get emotional or show concern of any kind. She just wasn't that type of person, but Clint's injury brought it out of her quickly,

"Hey," Bruce's voice interrupted her thinking. "They're friends, Milena…. Just friends."

Milena gave a sad smile back to him. Bruce always seemed to know what was going on in her mind and it felt good to know she was understood. However another part of her that was naturally jealous didn't even want to listen to Bruce's wisdom. Something strange rubbed her wrong and even a calm conscious couldn't persuade her to ignore it.

"I know," she stated. A part of her answered her friend and another part of her was deeply trying to convince herself too. "They just know so much about each other though…"

Tony up in the cockpit interrupted them. "Hey Banner, Dr. Cho's on her way in from Seoul, is it okay if she sets up in your lab?"

"Uh, yeah, she knows her way around."

As Bruce and the rest of the guys on the team conversed in the main section of the quinjet, Milena found herself sulking back into the rear corner as she zoned out. Pulling out her iPhone she was met with the comforting picture of her lock screen: a selfie she had taken just as Natasha planted a kiss on her cheek while her own face was broken into a wide smile. God she looked so happy there… "Of course Natasha is going to worry about Clint when he's hurt," she told herself. "They've had each other's backs for years…. that doesn't mean there's any attraction though. I'm not attracted to Bruce that way and he's not attracted to me; we're just friends and it's not any different with them either."

"Telivola," Stark's dramatic voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"Thor's farewell party. You're coming right?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world, dude," she smiled at the long, blonde haired god as if he were a west coast surfer. All he was missing was the tan. "Or any of the other realms in the universe of course."

"Ah, sister Milena!" Thor bellowed with a hearty chuckle. "Many thanks for your kindness and welcoming this past moon. But could you please explain once again this 'dude' title?"

"Sure thing," she stood up laughing too. "It just means I think you're a really fantastic guy that I love to spend time with."

If the god could blush then he did looking down and twiddling his fingers with his hammer as his cheeks reddened. "Well you are the dudeiest of dudes," he proclaimed pulling her into a giant hug. If it weren't for her enhanced strength she probably would have been crushed but she just smiled and patted her small hand on Thor's giant back all while trying to ignore that she couldn't breathe. Her feet dangled high above the ground and Bruce, Tony, and Steve chuckled to see the smallest member of the team being lifted off the ground by this massive Nordic god like it was nothing to either of them.

"Uh, Thor," Milena managed to choke out from what little air was left in her lungs. "I think we're here now."

"Oh, yes," Thor embarrassingly let her down when he realized they were back at the Avengers tower. He had to gently assist her during the drop that was several feet higher than her own height.

Nevertheless, she came down and landed with a smile and took a brief moment to glance back at Natasha on the other side of the jet. Half expecting her to be chuckling like Steve, Bruce, and Tony, she was slightly let down when she saw her still wrapped up in tending to Clint. No sooner than they had hit solid ground she was ordering workers around to get him on a stretcher and into medical care.

"I shouldn't be bothered by this," Milena scolded herself. "She's my girlfriend and is just watching out for Clint right now." She shook her head roughly and her hair fell all over her face in a messy pattern. "But she didn't seem bothered by Thor hugging me at all… shouldn't she have? Just a little bit?"

"Telivola!" a sharp voice interrupted her thoughts from the exit of the quinjet. It was Maria Hill: An agent you did not want to underestimate just because she didn't have any special abilities. The two had first met while Milena was training with her usual body bag Clint. Maria had suggested that they spar and her complete seriousness took Milena by surprise at first. It wasn't very often that even someone like Steve was up for sparring with her buddy the giant smelly dog. But it turned out that Maria Hill wasn't just determined to fight her, but she was also dead set on actually winning. Of course her guns would have done nothing to Milena's impenetrable skin but she still thought that the woman would try it anyway. She never expected for the agent to immediately flip onto her backside and manage to take her thick, muscular neck in a choke hold of some sort. Maria Hill had immediately won her respect and admiration.

"Oh, Agent Hill, yes, coming!" Milena snapped out of her state and briskly jogged out to meet the other woman on the platform already standing next to Steve.

"What's the word on Strucker?" Steve immediately got down to business as the two (much, much taller) agents broke into a speed walk and Milena initially took a little jog to catch up.

"NATO's got him," Maria answered.

"The two enhanced?"

"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins. Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building. Sokovia's had a rough history. It's nowhere special but it's on the way to everywhere special."

"Their abilities?"

"He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neural electric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation."

Every word Hill was saying seemed to blow past Steve which made Milena giggle a bit to herself. "He's fast and she's weird," she tried to simplify it for him to which he blushed a bit with clear embarrassment. "This is why we get you to do the fighting and not the thinking Cap," she practically had to extend her arm up the entire way in order to give him a playful pat on one of his massive shoulders. Damn, they were bigger than his head.

"Well, they are going to show up again."

"Agreed," Hill decided to rejoin the conversation once it got back on topic and the other two agents weren't messing around. "File says they volunteered for Strucker's experiments. It's nuts."

"Right," Steve came to a halt and gave the older female agent that star-spangled smile with a bit of a sad twist to it. "What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?"

"We're not at war, Captain," Hill tried explain.

"They are."

As Steve began to walk off in the opposite direction Milena struggled to trail behind him. He just took such large strides and her puny little legs couldn't keep up. Thank God that she still had a bit of inhuman speed left in her tired body.

"Steve, wait!" she called out trying to grab for his arm.

"Milena," he turned around. " What is it?"

"The fast one," she lowered her voice and motioned for him to lean down to her level. "What was he like when he encountered you?"

A slightly worried look on his face appeared before he tried to hide it away from his clearly distressed young friend. He had never had a sister and was obviously horrible with women, but Milena was different. She was the first girl that he could feel comfortable around. He didn't know if it was because they shared similar tragedies or if it was just how their personalities fit in well together, but he saw Milena as more of a little sister he needed to protect even though he was very aware that her alter-ego was capable of giving him hell.

"Definitely fast. You got that right. But I wouldn't say he isn't prone to slipping."

"No, Steve, really," Mlena tried to get him to be serious and grabbed his elbow. "I don't know why or what it was but I didn't hear him come up behind us. That's really scary."

Steve let out a long held-in breath before kneeling down so he could get to Milena's height and look her in the eyes. He wrapped his arms around the young girl who clearly looked distressed and he genuinely hoped she would feel better. "I know, kid, I know. But I always like to say that 'the only thing we have to fear is fear itself', okay?"

Milena quickly broke away from the embrace to give him funny looking glare. "Steve Rogers you know FDR said that you little plagiarizing fake boy scout!" She accused him in his face as he laughed at how quickly he cheered her up and got her back to her feisty self.

"Breaking my oath was worth it if it got you to laugh, Telivola!"


	3. IMPORTANT UPDATE: I'M BACK, NEW STORY

Hello all

So after seeing Endgame, I'm completely broken. There will be no spoilers here but the movie helped me realize that I was never completely satisfactory with the direction I was taking Milena and Natasha in with Age of Ultron and, more importantly, that I also haven't given up on them. If anything, my vision and love for the two has come out stronger.

I've decided that I'm not going to rewrite this sequel, but instead I want to progress on with the story and Captain American Civil War. I've had ideas for CACW and Milena/Natasha since I first started writing about the two God knows how many years ago on quotes and I'm just really excited to finally be able to put it all on paper. Avengers Like Us is going to remain up here and I do hope that one day I can come back and update it. But, as of now I don't have a foreseeable plot for the two in AOU which has been bringing down my writer's enthusiasm as well. In the near future I'm going to be publishing and hopefully continuing to update a new sequel in the Monsters Like Us series so be on the look out for that. It will follow the events of CACW but I promise that the big time skip from pre-AOU won't be huge to their relationship. With the vision I have, I actually believe that CACW will be a better place to develop the two as characters.

To those who haven't given up on me yet, thank you so much.


End file.
